No more electrophillic addition rxns??

[johnwandering]

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The old BR orgo book used to have a detailed electrophillic addition reaction section.
But the new book no longer has this section and in its place notes that "the mcat does not list the reactions of an alkene as a topic" (page 277)

I was wondering when this update occurred.
And if it was reliable~

 

[milski]

I don't know when but alkenes are not on the list of topics for BS.

You can check it here from the source: https://www.aamc.org/students/download/85566/data/bstopics.pdf

 

[MedPR]

The old BR orgo book used to have a detailed electrophillic addition reaction section.
But the new book no longer has this section and in its place notes that "the mcat does not list the reactions of an alkene as a topic" (page 277)

I was wondering when this update occurred.
And if it was reliable~

It is certainly reliable. It doesn't hurt to know them if you already do though.

 

[chiddler]

whoah. we don't have to know alkene reactions?

 

[milski]

whoah. we don't have to know alkene reactions?

Not for the MCAT. Now if you manage to avoid them during the 1 year of ochem... let me know where so that I can start working on transferring there. 😎

 

[gettheleadout]

whoah. we don't have to know alkene reactions?

'Parently not.

EDIT: Found this.

Although the AAMC claims not to test alkenes on the MCAT, this is not really true. For example, you need to know about all of the following topics:

• E1 and E2 reactions (produce alkene products)
• addition reactions (start with an alkene reactant)
• geometric isomerism (cis and trans or E and Z diastereomers around a double bond)
• fatty acids (kinked cis bonds produce oils while straight trans bonds produce solid fats)

I'm sure that you guys can come up with some more ideas besides these. But the main point is that alkenes are an essential part of organic chemistry, and they DO show up, one way or another, on many AAMC topics that you need to know for the test. So I'd recommend that you know the basics about them.

 

[Dasypus]

I'm looking at the list, and pace QofQuimica E1 and E2 are nowhere on it. Which suggests that there really is no alkene-specific chemistry on the exam now.

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

I'm looking at the list, and pace QofQuimica E1 and E2 are nowhere on it. Which suggests that there really is no alkene-specific chemistry on the exam now.

I believe QofQuimica's quote is from several years ago. They did away with alkene reactions in 2003, although reactions of dienes was still fair game so electrophilic addition was a possibility.

The BS topic list has not included E1 and E2 elimination reactions or electrophilic addition reactions in years, but Hofmann elimination (glorified E2 really) is listed. BR cut back on that section addressing the bare minimum amount of E1 and E2 to understand Hofmann elimination and the impact of carbocations and rearrangement. The organic book covers alkene biochemistry, as you need to know what FADH2 does to saturation and what hydration of a pi-bond gives. Geometrical isomerization is still testable.

I haven't been completely through the new organic book, but what I've looked at so far seems more to the point than before. It's not shorter like I expected. It looks like they removed text pages only to add more passage pages.

 

[hellocubed]

I haven't been completely through the new organic book, but what I've looked at so far seems more to the point than before. It's not shorter like I expected. It looks like they removed text pages only to add more passage pages.

I used to have the 2009 edition of the BR book, and I now have the latest version.

Things they used to have that they took out:
-Electrophilic Addition Reactions
-Regioselectivity
- all Nucleophilic Conjugate Addition

but they still have their E1/E2 Elimination reaction sections

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

I used to have the 2009 edition of the BR book, and I now have the latest version.

Things they used to have that they took out:
-Electrophilic Addition Reactions
-Regioselectivity
- all Nucleophilic Conjugate Addition

but they still have their E1/E2 Elimination reaction sections

Exactly.

C-13 NMR is also gone.

E1 and E2 are half the pages as before and now there's Hofmann elimination and Biochemistry alkene reactions. The E1 and E2 passages from before are gone and there are more bio-related passages and a Hofmann elimination passage.